Bishop's Statement

Here's a great statement by the Bishop of Scranton about how Catholics should judge themselves worthy or unworthy to receive Holy Communion. (Sen. Casey, have you read this yet?) Perhaps we should ALL read this and be reminded of our own obligations.

http://www.dioceseofscranton.org/News/OfficialNoticeOnCommunionFebruary26,2009.asp

AND now we have THIS...

Readers are probably looking at the last post and freaking out--not to worry--I haven't lost a screw. Ok--well, maybe only a few....I am pleased that the SSPX bishops have been brought back into the Church just as I would be for anyone who was previously excommunicated. Excommunication is a severe discipline of the Church designed to get people to change and come back to the teachings of the Church. The SSPX and the Vatican have been working on this for a while and it finally happened. This will be a good thing--now for the bad.

The "idiot uncle" of the group, bishop Williamson, shows up on camera with his odd ideas on the Holocaust, denying what happened/how many and how-against the stated position of the Church , so he could appear educated and sophisticated. He wound up looking like a sad crackpot and gives the media a fantastic target (He gave the interview in November and the lifting of the excommunication took place in late January). No plan here was there? (Hmmmm?)

Regardless of ANY conspiracy theories that may put forth in defending the indefensable comments, + Williamson sets the whole cause back AND makes His Holiness and the Vatican AND Bp. Fellay look inept in the process. They are NOT. + Williamson has made himself a pariah by his comments and better prepare himself for a major kick in the fanny from Bishop Fellay and just about EVERYBODY else and it is richly deserved.

Meanwhile, Tradition must continue to move forward. It has a place of honor in the Church and no one person(s) should cause this restoration to fail. This has caused a person to fall from favor, but we are not a group that should be attached to any person except Christ. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater, but for all our sakes Bp. Fellay, please drain and clean the tub.

Deo Gratias! SSPX Excommunications lifted!

Thanks be to God! Our common sense has been regained and we have restored what was lost and hidden from us. No better gift could be had than the healing of this division WITHOUT recrimination or blame.

It's REAL--Here' the Vatican press release in Italian--http://212.77.1.245/news_services/bulletin/news/23235.php?index=23235&po_date=23.01.2009&lang=en

and Vatican Radio in English--http://www.radiovaticana.org/en1/index.asp

Welcome back Brothers and Sisters and thank you for your witness to the Truth!

follow up to Pastoral letter from Little Rock

and he labored and brought forth this....

http://www.dolr.org/bishop/pastoralimmigration_english.pdf

Wow! I cannot believe this...advocating this position is madness. I am not for depriving anyone of their human rights BUT THIS solution is nonsense. I am in favor of the Church being humane and treating everyone with respect, but I AM for enforcing the laws of the land. This has nothing to do with bringing Jesus to these immigrants, it is an economic circumstance that must be resolved in their own countries. If we fail to care for our own, we cannot help anyone beyond our borders. Even the Apostles were charged with taking the Gospel locally and then to the ends of the earth.

To quote the Bishop...."We do support them being here illegally. They have a right to be here," he said. "We are here to serve everybody. Not just Catholics. We are not a country club. We are here to bring the love of Jesus to everybody. They are here because there is no way to get documents, not because they don't want documents. They do not want to immigrate without documents. ... You can't be obliged to do what you can't do. Immigration laws should correspond to the reality."

Wow!!!

Lessee here Mr. Obama....

We are broke as a nation. Every single financial institution in the country is wailing like a banshee and bleeding red ink to the point that they might not survive and YOU want to make sure that Madonna does not adopt any more African Babies by sending US tax dollars to provide abortion to the Third World Countries? HMMMMM--to paraphrase SNL--"That don't sound good to me". Must have missed how we are going to PAY for this one without my taxes going up. Forget the immorality of the whole thing--uh--wait, that IS the point....anyway...BUT where do we get the $$$$???

West TN Catholic article

I read an interesting article today in the West TN Catholic regarding the Bishop of Little Rock, Bishop Anthony Taylor. He is issuing a Pastoral letter about the human rights of "undocumented immigrants". The article says that he "believes that being able to migrate to another country is an intrinsic human right." He says that because it's virtually impossible for immigrants, predominantly from Mexico, to come to the United States legally, "You can't be obligated to do what you can't do". (I beg your pardon???)

I will be VERY interested to see this document when it's released. Advocating breaking the law of the United States is an interesting interpretation of the Gospel. Don't get me wrong, it's important to be compassionate. That said, I have to obey the laws of Mexico if I go there--why should the people who want to come here not obey OUR laws. I'm not sure that's what Jesus meant when he said"render unto Caesar what is Caesar's....

Well, right after my October 28th comment/rant many individual bishops came out and said clearly that Catholics cannot continue to support politicians that support a culture of death. You cannot profess with your mouth one thing and VOTE another way.

Most notably, Bishop Emeritus Rene H. Gracida of Corpus Chrisi and the words of Bishop Martino of Scranton Pennsylvania-Bishop Martino arrived unannounced in the midst of a panel discussion on faith issues and the presidential campaign at St. John’s Catholic Church on Sunday. According to people who attended the event, the bishop chastised the group for holding the forum and particularly took issue with the discussion and distribution of excerpts from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ position on voting issues. The document defines abortion and euthanasia, as well as racism, torture and genocide, as among the most important issues for Catholic voters to consider.“No USCCB document is relevant in this diocese,” he was quoted as saying in the Wayne County Independent, a Honesdale-based newspaper. “The USCCB doesn’t speak for me.” “The only relevant document ... is my letter,” he said at the forum, according to the Independent. “There is one teacher in this diocese, and these points are not debatable.”

According to participants, Bishop Martino expressed dismay that the panelists did not discuss the pastoral letter he directed all priests in the Diocese to read in place of their homilies on Oct. 4 and 5. In that letter, he called on Catholic voters to consider abortion above all other issues, except those he defined as having equal moral weight, like euthanasia and embryonic stem-cell research.

Pray for the bishops. Pray they have the spine to put the real truth before us and make us face the reality of what we do. Pray that we form men worth of thier calling-willing to make a statement to the faithful-and to the community at large-to instruct us on PRACTICAL matters of faith.